Christabel (2021)
Christabel
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Why watch this film?
Anyone who feels that 'Christabel' has gothic features is not mistaken. This romantic drama set in the Brazilian Cerrado is nothing more than the Tupiniquim adaptation of an English poem from 1800 written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The British text was the first mention in literature of vampires, being even earlier than the also classic book 'Dracula'. Here, however, fantasy makes room for a mature and very well photographed film about a young woman (Milla Fernandez, a revelation of the Brazilian audiovisual) who ends up finding in a stranger (Lorena Castanheira) a kind of intimate and sexual catharsis. It is in the meeting of these two women that Christabel gets to know herself, discovers herself, understands herself. It goes beyond the limits of the farm, beyond the firm pulse of her father. It has the air of 'Call Me By Your Name', even with the reproduction of the peach scene, but replaced by a mango. There is eroticism in the plot, but also care for the journey of this title character to have space to grow and show itself. It could be less slow, perhaps with 25 minutes less of filming. But without a doubt, director Alex Levy-Heller ('Young Poles') nailed his talent here, in this mix of drama, romance and fantasy, showing that there are no limits either for national cinema.
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Plot summary
The only daughter of a rural worker, Christabel finds Geraldine, a mysterious woman, who says she's been attacked by men and needs help. Pure and innocent Christabel gives shelter to Geraldine at home. From then on, the two women relate to each other in a way that Geraldine has a great influence over Christabel, destabilizing her convictions and promoting tradition rupture, but that sparks a feeling of passion and freedom never experienced by the young girl before.
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Jovens Polacas
"White Slaves", a topic rarely addressed in cinema and literature, are women, usually trafficked to Brazil from Eastern Europe, and forced into prostitution. In "Young Poles", filmmaker Alex Levy-Heller (of the good "Christabel") brings light to these people, hidden in the shadows of prejudice and neglect. Aesthetically refined, the feature film succeeds in treating the theme with care, without explicit extreme situations and with a photography that jumps to the eyes. It aligns more with films like "Trafficking of Innocents" and moves away from productions like "The Book of Revelations" and "Bound to Vengeance", mainly revealing the drama of the characters. It is a slow movie, with digressions and even some narrative experiments, but it justifies itself by serving as an alert and giving voice to these real people, but so forgotten.
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